The Secret Box
by CoMo290
Summary: Vyse is keeping a secret from Fina, and she just has to know what it is.


Fina awoke in their dark room, and felt around their big soft bed for Vyse. He wasn't there. She had been awoken from another dream, a recurring dream. But unlike her last one, this one was pleasant. It was of she and Vyse, in a large beautiful meadow. They were lying together, holding each other. He was stroking her hair as she lay across his chest being held safe and secure in his arms. And almost every time it happened, she would awake, and feel around blindly for Vyse, to wrap her arms around his torso and get closer. But tonight she couldn't feel him.

She opened her eyes and rolled off to the left. Vyse was sitting on the edge of the large satin bed, looking down at something concealed in his hands. She looked at the clock. It was just about the time he usually got up to begin his day, which was a few hours of beauty sleep too early for her.

Then he stood up and went over to their bookshelf, opened a drawer, pulled out a small wooden box with a key in it, unlocked it, and put in whatever was in his hands. He then locked it and put it back.

Vyse started walking towards her. She pretended to be asleep again, as he kissed her forehead and left the room, still clutching the key.

At first, Fina wasn't sure if what just happened had in fact happened. She got of bed and went to the bookshelf. She opened the drawer and pulled out the box, and to be expected, it was locked. She shook it around. It sounded like little papers. Whatever it was was small and very light, and it sounded like there a few of them too. Her mind immediately went to pictures… dirty ones. She had seen them on the ships of people like Gilder, and some of the black pirates the often raided, but she never thought that Vyse, of all people, would be hoarding them. Vyse always had much more respect for women, especially their more private areas of anatomy, then most of them men she had met, but could that be the secret contained in this tiny box? She would have to find out more on the subject later, no matter how uncomfortable it may be.

After a long period of time pondering the subject, she looked at the clock and figured it to be a good time for breakfast. She opened the door and smelled the morning's powerful aroma. Situated evenly between the red and blue moons, the weather was almost always perfect. The few plants on the island were covered with fresh morning dew, and a slight breeze caught Fina's hair. Smoke was billowing out of the kitchen's chimney, which usually meant that food was ready to be served.

Fina headed down to the small ivory building, and found that the majority of the crew were already there, eating the delicious gourmet of breakfast items. Fina quickly spotted Aika's brightly colored outfit and big orange hair, and pulled up a chair next to her.

"Gooooood morning Fina." Aika greeted.

"Good morning Aika." Fina responded a little distantly.

Aika could tell something was on her friends mind.

"Fina, is something wrong?" She asked.

Fina snapped back into reality.

"Huh? Oh no… well not exactly. I mean…" She mumbled nervously.

"It's okay, you can tell me." She reassured.

"Well this morning, I woke up and Vyse wasn't there. I rolled over and saw him on the corner of the bed. He was looking down at something in his hands, then he put whatever it was in a small locked box, and hid it. And I'm just not sure if I should be worried. Do you have any idea of what it could be?"

Aika put on her thinking face.

"…Uh, nope. Sorry Fina, I can't say I do."

"Well you don't think it could be…"

"I doubt it. I've known Vyse my entire life. I don't think he'd get involved in anything like that. I'm sure you're the only girl he's seen in that way… on purpose."

Fina let out a deep sigh. "I sure hope so. What do you mean "on purpose"?"

Fina didn't see much of Vyse that day. One of the merchants renting space on the island had a shipment coming in, that Vyse promised to help with, and at dinner Vyse seemed somewhat distant. He would frequently stare out the window, usually at some of the girls walking by it seemed.

Fina got even more worried by this, so she excused herself from dinner early. She tried to reassure herself, but it was too hard. Was Vyse really losing interest in her? They hadn't even been married that long, but was it still possible? Fina just wanted to cry.

She started heading back to her room when something caught her eye. It was a store of… questionable clothing, which was renting on the island. Fina never really approved of it in the first place, and Vyse let them build it anyway, but now it might actually be of some use.

She walked into the small building, and after a quick glance around the walls, felt a little uncomfortable and started to leave, when the woman from behind the counter spotted her.

"May I help you?" She asked.

"Um… well I…" Fina took a deep breath. _Come on Fina, we're all mature adults here._ She thought to herself. "Well I think that… my husband might be losing interest in me. So…"

"So you thought you might buy some nice lingerie to get it back."

"Uhm, yeah."

"Well I can assure you that a beautiful young woman such as yourself has nothing to be worried about. But just in case… let's get you measured and see what we can do."

Fina stared at herself in the mirror, wearing her new and revealing outfit. There were all sorts of things going in all sorts of places, and it was incredibly uncomfortable, but if everything went according to plan, she wouldn't need to wear it for very long.

She looked out the window and saw Vyse coming. She quickly jumped onto the bed and waited for him to enter. The doorknob turned, and Vyse entered the room. He shut the door behind him and spotted Fina. He stopped dead in his tracks as his eyes widened. Fina smiled and Vyse cleared his throat.

"What's all this for?"

Fina got up and started walking towards him. She made sure he saw as much of what wasn't there as she came to his chest. She put her arms around his neck and looked directly into his chestnut eyes.

"I just figured that because you've been working so hard lately, you might like something "special"."

Fina awoke once again in the early morning, and once again, Vyse was not there. He sat at the edge of the bed with the contents of the secret box in his hands, and as same as last time, he slipped them into the box and carefully locked and hid them away.

Vyse left the room and curiosity finally got the better of Fina. She jumped out of bed, pulled out the box and called Cupil to her side. Cupil appeared with the usual squeak, and started floating around Fina's head.

"Cupil, I need you to form into a key and fit inside this box, okay?"

Cupil made its usual squeak of acknowledgement, and began to melt and twist until it resembled a key. Fina inserted it into the box and twisted it until she heard a click. She then flipped open the box and poured it's contents onto the floor. They caught her off guard. They were pictures all right, pictures of her (fully clothed of course). Pictures of them on their wedding day, the day after their honeymoon, and all sorts of other pictures, all of her or of them together. And there were some notes and letters, journal entries and poems, poorly written, but still good coming from Vyse. And they were all describing her. The fact that Vyse actually took time out of his day to write, one of his least favorite things to do, all about her touched and amazed her. He kept and had written down everything she had ever said relating to the subject of love, in this one little box.

The doorknob turned and Vyse came back in. He looked down and saw his wife, with tears in her eyes peering at all of these sacred mementos of love he had kept. He smiled down at her. She smiled back and stood up. She came into his arms and pulled tight.

"I love you so much." She whispered.

"I love you too." He whispered back


End file.
